Penn State Athletic Director Pat Kraft greets players during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Oregon, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Today is national early signing day for high school football recruiting.

And Penn State still has no coach.

Take a bow, Pat Kraft.

When he presumably almost tripped going up the steps of the Lasch Building in his haste to fire James Franklin on Sunday, Oct. 12, the move was universally understood and largely supported, despite the unfortunate timing, simply because Franklin had lost his fastball and the fan base.

As much as the Nittany Nation had grown tired of Franklin and his big-game, deer-in-the-headlights faults, it was accepted because of a simple presumption — that Kraft would actually find a replacement.

Through 52 days, he has not.

So it’s a good thing this one-man committee got a head start to interview the smorgasbord of candidates at his fingertips.

By now, you know most or all of the names mentioned over the past seven weeks.

Some were realistic. Some were not. Some were interested but didn’t win enough. Others won too much. Some lacked mutual interest and/or couldn’t commit.

It started with Saban, Meyer, Gruden and Cignetti.

It included Rhule, Elko, Brohm, Drinkwitz, DeBoer, Chesney, Key, Lea, Fitzgerald, Diaz, Mullen, Campbell, Hartline, Stein, Daboll, Heupel, Golden and, in the past few days, Lincoln Riley and Kalani Sitake.

And, for his deep Penn State roots and the way he picked up the pieces in the wake of Franklin’s firing, interim coach Terry Smith.

Any of them would have been better than the empty chair that sits in Franklin’s old office.

Because he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, wait through two more home games to fire Franklin, Kraft wrongly believed he was in front of the posse. Power 4 programs UCLA (DeShaun Foster) and Virginia Tech (Brent Pry) had already axed their coaches.

But his early dismissal gave others the chance to up the ante and preserve their coaches. Many of them did.

Kraft obviously overplayed his hand and, depending how it winds up, has jeopardized his own career. It’s fair to wonder: Will he be around when the $700 million Beaver Stadium renovation — which he helped drive — debuts in 2027?

The late-night dance with Sitake is an example. Regarded by everyone as a terrific individual who has done an excellent job at BYU, the fit was highly questionable. He has never coached east of Utah.

Penn State’s only advantage was money — at least until BYU’s top boosters warded that off in the most inspired defense the Cougars have ever played.

Sitake, per Jon Sauber of the Centre Daily Times and national media, informed Kraft late Tuesday that he’s staying in Provo — after the two reportedly made a handshake agreement on Sunday.

It’s hard to believe Sitake was poised to leave a team, his alma mater, that is one win from the College Football Playoff, but that apparently was the case – even if he wouldn’t know Boalsburg from Bellefonte.

Kraft’s work has turned him into a punchline.

The guy he fired not only landed a job before Kraft could figure this out, but this morning, Franklin will be in the middle of a bells-and-whistles Virginia Tech signing day – his specialty – and celebrating former Nittany Lion commitments.

Meanwhile, Penn State has all but surrendered the early-signing period for the half-dozen verbals who remained, and some of the Lion returnees are already shopping themselves.

A day after canning Franklin, Kraft sounded prepared for this high-stakes scenario, like he had thought it through from Plan A to Plan B to “Hey, if I strike out on the biggest names, will you promise to take the job?”

“You have to be prepared for everything,” he said then. “And so, yeah, I mean, that’s the nature of the business. When you make these types of decisions … anything this significant just doesn’t come on a whim. You have to have scenarios in your (mind) — and we do. How is this going to go? What if this happened?”

One of the many reports the internet churned up Monday was former ESPN talking head Todd McShay (who despised Franklin, BTW) theorizing that super-agent Jimmy Sexton was sabotaging the search because of what Kraft did to Franklin.

Make of that what you will.

Would one of Sexton’s clients, Bob Chesney (a Pennsylvania native who has climbed the ladder through impressive stints at Holy Cross and James Madison) really take the UCLA job just to appease his agent if he thought Penn State would hire him?

That said, Sexton is a good guy to have on your side. Among his reported clients are Franklin, Kalen DeBoer, Steve Sarkisian, Kirby Smart, Nick Saban (who went from Franklin cynic to shaming PSU for its audacity) and the real charmer of all, Lane Kiffin.

Unless he has an ace in his pocket – Sitake, he thought — Kraft has fumbled on the goal line.

He’ll still end up with a coach, of course, but this execution was as bad as James ever was in the redzone vs. Ohio State.

Michigan State just fired a coach (Jonathan Smith) and hired a replacement (Pat Fitzgerald) in two days. No way that plan was hatched Sunday morning. The SEC is in the midst of wall-to-wall introductions.

Of everybody left, though it’s unconventional to fire someone and hire his assistant, Smith could best maintain staff and roster stability. And enough of the fans have endorsed him.

Giving him a shorter contract, say three years, wouldn’t be a crime. It would be an admission that Kraft swung a few times but Smith ended up as the best alternative.

Kraft did say humility is one of the characteristics he’s looking for in the next coach. He might have to show some himself and fall on his sword.

Plus here’s another factor: Smith is one of the few who truly wants the job.

Penn State had planned to rely on the transfer portal, which opens Jan. 2, but Kraft’s handling of his first huge decision and now the potential need for an entire new roster could set the program further back than Franklin ever did.

Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.